Locano's Guide to RDM WeaponsFollow

Locano's Guide to RDM Weapons

This guide is part of The New RDM 101 Table of Contents.

This guide is based on my (currently) 61 levels of playing RDM and on Airspirit's Red Mage 101, which he is no longer updating. I don't claim to be the most knowledgeable on playing RDM. I know there are people on this forum who have played RDM much longer than I have, and have some very excellent ideas. Since RDMs have so many abilities, and thus so many ways that these abilities can be played, I will be more than happy to link to different mini-guides posted by other people here. This guide does include RDMs meleeing in exp parties, but does not focus on it. People have very strong opinions on this issue, and understandably so. I ask that you please withhold the arguments as to whether or not RDMs should melee. This guide is a run through of weapons that I think RDMs should use. The guide is in 3 sections, Swords, Daggers, and Magely Weapons.

~ Swords ~

Here is a run through of the swords that I recommend for RDM. Keep in mind that saving up the money for a +1 weapon is a good idea. It will help you do more damage, and you get the money back as soon as you sell it (unless the price changes). If you just aren't able to get the money for the +1, after the slash is an alternate choice. Remember, once you start partying, feel free to melee unless 1) you are main healer, 2) party asks you not to, or 3) you don't want to.

1: Wax Sword +1 / Wax Sword
7: Xiphos +1 / Xiphos
9: Spatha +1 / Spatha
11: Bee Spatha +1 / Bee Spatha

I highly recommend the Bee Spatha +1, you'll have it for quite a few levels.

18: Longsword +1 / Longsword

Again, get the +1, you'll have this sword for a while.

27: Gladiator / Gladius
30: Centurion's Sword / Broadsword +1 / Broadsword
34: Republic Sword / Bastokan Sword / keep lvl 30 Sword
38: Divine Sword +1 / Divine Sword
40: Buzzard Tuck

This sword wasn't available when I was around this level, so I don't have any experience with it. However, FortManOLeviathan seems to think it is a good sword, and from the looks of it, I'd have to agree. I would recommend this over the AF1 when meleeing (see below).

41: Fencing Degen - AF1

While the attack stats on our AF Sword are kind of lacking, the mage stats kind of make up for it. Plus it looks cool and it's free! =P

47: Knight's Sword +1 / Knight's Sword
49: Crimson Blade

I don't know about the Crimson Blade. When I was level 49, I bought it, as did my sister who just hit level 49 recently. Looking back at it, I don't think it's such a good idea compared to the Knight's Sword. Use your own judgement.

55: Wise Wizard's Anelace
55: Royal Guard's Fleuret

The original RDM 101 recommended buying both swords and switching between the two. When you can easily hit the monster, use the WWA. When you can't, use RGF. To me, this was too much. I only purchased the WWA. Sure, I had standard problems with accuracy, but I don't regret not saving up for RGF. I think the money is much better spent on Elemental Staffs (see the Magely Weapons section below).

56: Saber +1 / Saber

This sword is just a less expensive alternative to the Wise Wizard's Anelace.

59: Aramis's Rapier

The original RDM 101 said nothing about this weapon. I'm uncertain as to whether that was because it was not known of then, or the author didn't like it. After careful consideration, I decided to buy this weapon due to it's +Acc and low delay (price had a bit to do with it too).

62: Gold Sword +1 / Gold Sword

The author of the original RDM 101 thought very highly of the Gold Sword +1, and rightfully so. This sword has incredible DMG compared to other Swords available. As of right now, I am uncertain as to whether I am going to keep my Aramis's Rapier or purchase a Gold Sword.

68: Enhancing Sword

(Information from IdiotBeacon) Rare Sword and insanely rare drop from 21-24 Wyvern Bune located in Gustav Tunnel. Hes a non-lottery pop but is sometimes up for a while. Preferred tank is a NIN tank with double Mambo. He's not hard otherwise. The reason why you want this sword is the +5 en-spell damage and the latent +accuracy and +attack. The trigger is having an en-spell on your sword so it's the best situation. This sword is the highest damage per second Sword a RDM can use.

70: Joyeuse

(Information from IdiotBeacon) Rare/Ex sword that drops from Charybdis, Sea Monk NM located in the Sea Serpent Grotto. His drop rate is 100% but spawning Charybdis is difficult. Soloable (place holders only) with some difficulty as a 74 taru RDM/BLM. If he ever pops bring along a lot of friends who are high level. NIN tank might work if they have double mambo but PLDs tanks are better. Has inherant multi attack ability and I've seen a nicely decked out taru PLD go from Max HP to 1 (yes 1) and dead in one attack sequence from Charydbis. (No 2hr was used). The reason you want this sword is the double attack ability. This enhances the potency of your en-spells. More attacks mean more enspell damage. The double attack ability supposedly processes around 50% of the time. This double attack adds to your TP gain which allows you to pull off Spirits Within for NM and HNMs (if you melee before hand) or Fast Blade/Savage Blade for regular farming.

75: Excalibur

(Information from IdiotBeacon) If you think you can get this sword within one year, you sir are certifiably insane. To my knowledge, no one on any server has yet finished this weapon. Requires a 4 stage upgrade. Stage 1 and 2 require dynamis currency. Using current prices on Titan, to achieve Stage 3, you need 20M gil. Stage 4 requires a Dynamis-Xarcabard drop. Stage 5 requires an item located somewhere in the world. (exact info can be found on Mystery Tour > Dynamis > Relic Upgrade). Why do you want this sword? Besides the cool name, it allows you access to the WS "Knights of the Round". Supposedly its an upgrade of Spirits Within. Instead of doing 15/32nd of your HP when you use spirits, you do 100% of your HP. This is a great deal of damage on any HNM.

~ Daggers ~

Square Enix is really confusing in this department. They start RDMs off with a dagger, and they give us many of the Dagger Weaponskills. However, in general, Sword is the way to go for RDM. One use for daggers, which I have never tried (I stopped levelling my dagger somewhere around lvl 25... my skill is still at 74), is to use low-delay daggers + En-spells to do damage. This can be particularly useful against high defense mobs. Here is the list of Daggers that Airspirit (original RDM 101 author) made up.

7: Beestinger
20: Platoon Dagger
48: Hornetneedle

(Information from IdiotBeacon) This dagger is obtained from a rare/ex drop from Wespes located in the Temple of Uggalepih (connected to Yhoator Jungle SE area). This drop is similar to the Papyrus for Genkai 1. You can spend a few days trying for it or get it on your 5th kill. At the entrance, there is spot to camp if you are under level 72. This area has a total of 4 Wespes that spawn. I beleive its a 12 minute respawn for each Wespe. If you are higher than lvl 72 you can go further into the Temple and kill 4 more wespes. At the first T-junction, go south. At the second T-junction, go south again for the ??? spawn and 2 Wespes or go north for 2 Wespes. Lvl 72 is needed for walking around because I believe aggro stops at that level.

65: Garuda's Dagger

This dagger is Rare/Ex. It is one of the rewards you can choose after killing Garuda Prime (the full Garuda quest).
(Information from Imortalis) With Haste and Enspell you'll probably out damage a Gold Sword on IT mobs.

71: Misericorde +1 / Misericorde

(Information from Stanislaw) The 2nd Highest Damaging Dagger Red Mages can equip besides the Mandau, and it also add some nifty stats and with relative low delay. There is also a +1 version of this, but in my old server that went for about 1~2 million. Can be crafted with level 92 Smithing, using a Fire Crystal, one Adaman Ingot, and one Darksteel Ingot.

74: Thanatos Baselard

(Information from Stanislaw) The Highest Damaging Dagger Red Mages can equip that can be purchaced (the -1 to attack is neglegible), and for obvious reasons this is an very good dagger due to the bonus it provides to Enfeebling Magic Skill. Is a drop item from certain BCNM Kindred Battles.

75: Mandau

~ Magely Weapons ~

Since we are Red MAGES, we also need carry around a wand to boost our spells, especially at higher levels when debuffs are often resisted. While +1s are nice, I understand how expensive this all is, and have given you an alternate option. Also, at level 51, the line of Elemental Staffs becomes available. I have listed them in the order of which I think they are most important. In addition to the listed affects, they also encrease the potency of related spells (compare the staff's element to the little dot next to the spell on your spell list). You are in no way expected to have all of these staffs at level 51. I didn't get my Dark Staff until level 56, or my Ice Staff until level 60! Get them when you can, but don't sell all of your equipment to buy them. Switch your Wand/Staff out when you start casting, and then change to Sword/Dagger for meleeing.

1: Maple Wand +1 / Maple Wand
9: Willow Wand +1 / Willow Wand
18: Yew Wand +1 / Yew Wand
32: Solid Wand / Chestnut Wand
48: Rose Wand +1 / Rose Wand
60: Ebony Wand +1 / Ebony Wand
65: Mythic Wand +1 / Mythic Wand
70: Mistilteinn

Elemental Staffs (available at level 51):
For more information about these Staffs, visit KCMichaelM's Elemental Staves and Enfeebling guide.

- Dark Staff
- Ice Staff
- Wind Staff
- Earth Staff
- Light Staff
- Pluto's Staff (and sell Dark)
- Auster's Staff (and sell Wind)
- Terra's Staff (and sell Earth)
- Aquilo's Staff (and sell Ice)
- Water Staff
- Thunder Staff
- Fire Staff
- Neptune's Staff (and sell Water)
- Jupiter's Staff (and sell Thunder)
- Vulcan's Staff (and sell Fire)
- Apollo's Staff (and sell Light)

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please post them below and I and other members of this forum will try to help you out as much as we can.

Edited, Sun Jan 30 08:55:09 2005 by Locano

I didn't add these swords before because I haven't gotten that far yet =P They have been added now, though. Thank you for your information.

Added them both, thanks ^.^

Yes, I believe the Enhancing Sword is about 5 million on my server as well.

I know there is no way for every RDM to have each of these pieces of equipment. When I started out as a RDM, I didn't have equipment that even came close to this. This guide is written for both people who are new to the game (starting out as a RDM) and people who are new to the job (started out as a different job, and then have switched to RDM). That is why I included alternate choices.

I totally forgot about this sword, as it wasn't available when I was level 40. I will add it right away.

By the way, do you think you could send in a picture of it to Allakhazam? I hate when items don't have pictures =P

I was just cruising random weapon lists when I saw the San D'Orian Sword, it looks like the best RDM sword pre-30, maybe even a bit better than Centurion's?

Can anyone confirm its existence/price?

Thanks in advance
- Zoelef

Edited, Sun Oct 24 21:50:58 2004 by Zoelef

Dagger : I get very nice, free of charge dagger at lv 65, Garuda's dagger. It's little slower than hornet but sill have speed ^.^

I don't understand the Aramis Rapier ever being used...

Ryl Grd's Fleuret: Dmg 33 Dly 215 +6 Acc +5 Parry
Aramis Rapier: Dmg 30 Dly 202 +3 Acc +5 Parry

Yes, the -.13 sec delay IS nice, and would be noticable, I'll grant that in a second.

But -3 base damage? I'm mulling over paying 350k more to get a Gold Sword +1 over the NQ just for ONE more base damage.

Three base damage is ALOT, plus it has less accuracy!

I know several RDM's who use this on Siren... Yes it looks awesome, but 3 base is alot.

Edit: Also reference the WWA, with Dmg 34 Dly 226 and attack +14. Most use 2 swords (as do I), and currently the Fleuret will be my acc sword and Gold Sword my damage sword. I would use the WWA all the way up to Gold Sword. Just my 2 cents...

Edited, Mon Oct 25 13:24:44 2004 by KCMichaelM

Some basic info on hornetneedle since its the dagger I wield.

lvl 47 dagger that requires a rare/ex drop from wespes located in the Temple of Uggalepih (connected to Yhoator Jungle SE area). This drop is similar to the Papyrus for Genkai 1. You can spend a few days or your 5th kill can drop it. At the entrance, your usual non lvl 72+ camp spot there are a total of 4 wespes that spawn. I beleive its a 12 minute respawn for each wespe. If you are higher than lvl 72 you can go further into the temple and kill 4 more wespes. First T junction go South. 2nd T junction. Go south for the ??? spawn and 2 wespes or go north for 2 wespes. Lvl 72 is needed for walking around because I believe aggro stops at that level.

Hmmm since I added so much to Hornet I'll rewrite my Enhancing and Joyeuse entries.

Joyeuse - Rare/Ex sword that drops from Charybdis, Sea Monk NM located in the Sea Serpent Grotto. His drop rate is 100% but spawning Charybdis is difficult. Soloable (place holders only) with some difficulty as a 74 taru rdm/blm. If he ever pops bring along a lot of friends who are high level. NIN tank might work if they have double mambo but PLDs tanks are better. Has inherant multi attack ability and I've seen a nicely decked out taru PLD go from Max HP to 1 (yes 1) and dead in one attack sequence from Charydbis. (No 2hr was used). The reason you want this sword is the double attack ability. This enhances the potency of your en-spells. More attacks == more enspell damage. The double attack ability supposedly processes around 50% of the time. This double attack adds to your TP gain which allows you to pull of spirits for NM and HNMs (if you melee before hand) or fast blade/savage blade for regular farming.

Enhancing Sword - Rare sword and insanle rare drop from 21-24 Wyvern Bune located in Gustav Tunnel. Hes a non-lottery pop but is sometimes up for a while. Preferred tank is a NIN tank with double Mambo. Hes not hard otherwise. The reason why you want this sword is the +5 en spell damage and the latent +accuracy and +attack. The trigger is having an en-spell on your sword so its the best situation. its the highest dps sword a RDM can use.

Excalibur - Added since someone mentioned it above. If you think you can get this sword within one year, you sir are certifiably insane. To my knowledge, no one on any server has yet finished this weapon. Requires a 4 stage upgrade. Stage 1 and 2 require dynamis currency. Using current prices on Titan, to achieve Stage 3, you need 20M gil. Stage 4 requires a dyna xarcabard drop. Stage 5 requires an item located somewhere in teh world. (exact info can be found on mystery tour > dynamis > relic upgrade). Why do you want this sword? Besides the cool name, it allows you access to the WS "Knights of the ROund". Supposedly its an upgrade of Spirits Within. Instead of doing 15/32nd of your HP when you use spirits, you do 100% of your HP. This is a great deal of damage on any HNM.

I checked Sylph's Jeuno and Bastok AH's, and there's no Lvl. 24 sword of any kind, so it's probably a beta item that was cut.


Edited, Tue Oct 26 12:35:37 2004 by Zoelef

First of all good job Locano! Second here is what I know about some of the weapons

Joyeuse- Charybdis spawns behind the gold door(need a gold beast coin to open) We've camped him a few times and he seems to always be late on his spawn time. Seems like a 4 hour window.
Sword is 100% drop.

Enhancing Sword - Goes for about 3.5-4 million on valefor. I've been on two Bune hunts, no drop. Pretty much need a ninja tank for bune.

Thanatos Baselard - Just bought this one for 100k lastnight. I'm 8k from 71 so it will be a while until I get to try it. Still not sure if using the appropriate stave would be better or not.

Hornetneedle - Amazing if you farm elementals. Between Energy Drain and Aspir you can pretty much just Nuke all day.

Garuda's Dagger - With Haste and Enspell you'll probably out damage a gold sword on IT mobs.

Royal Guard's Fleuret - Best Skill up sword hands down. Sub ninja and dual weild these for +12 acc.

Elemental Staves - Every redmage should at least have dark/ice/earth/wind. I wasn't too sure of having all of these until I finally bought them and tried them out. It's just amazing to see Simurgh paralyzed for 5/10 turns :)
Also if you plan to nuke you must have these. It makes you feel good to burst an Aero III for 629 on a light skill chain ( couldnt' be done with out the wind staff)

One note I forgot to add about spirits within damage. (info stolen from applepie on ffxionline) is that at 300% its 15/32 of your total life. a 300% KOTR supposedly will do 100% of your current HP but I am unsure of the truth in this statement.

First off:

I know of one player who owns Excalibur. He is a JP (galka no less) on Remora, with PLD, THF, and NIN at 75. I do not know him personally, but a friend of mine who migrated said he saw it in action, and I have no reason to doubt him.

Luckily for Belgarath, Koh-I-Noors are down to 1mil a pop on Asura, so it's not quite as hellishly expensive as it used to be. The first and second evolutions are easy, just money sinks like no other. The 3rd and 4th stages (details about which are nigh to impossible to find) are the killers, involving NM fights, possibly a speed-race across Xarcabard, and other insane tasks besides.

Second off:

There is no feeling quite as downtrodding as gathering an alliance from your LS to fight Bune, having someone else arrive, claim, and fight him first, and have them get the drop. It is the single most humbling experience in the game for a RDM, I think, and I almost wept at the Sword That Got Away.

Good call on the Garuda dagger. It's got a bit more delay than my hornetneedle, but together they make a great combo when dual wielded with /nin and haste. Also, the silence effect seemed to kick in a lot which could be nice when farming eles and doing skillups/coffer hunts on caster job beastmen.

Where's my padded room! Yes, I have been doing research on what it's going to take. Especially since I now have the Relic Sword. I don't know the time frame it will take but why not aspire to having the greatest sword in the game? Will the sword itself be worth everything thing it takes to get it? Not really. But achiving such an endeavor would be priceless.

I don't really like the Fire/Flame Sword for two reasons. First, it has lower DMG than the Longsword (although 1 isn't that big of a deal). The main reason I don't like it is because En-spells overwrite the Additional Effect, so what's the point? En-spells are infinately better because they always affect the mob (assuming you hit it) while Additional Effects very rarely affect the mob.

The item the Wespes drop is called Bee Larvae it is Ex/Rare
you take your Bee Larvae and trade is to the ??? in the room you mentioned, This action Trade Pops a Bee NM called "Death From Above", Death From Above is easy to defeat with atleast 2 RDM's to do together, His attacks are very fast, averaging around 100dmg non phalanx'ed, (found this out hardway), he is soloable, but eva and parry and shield skills and gear are desirable, food, i would use a jack o larntern,
recomend a pt for -72, the room is crowded, with aggroable mobs

I used the Flame Sword for a long time without using the En* spells much. If I saw one fire effect every 50 hits it was a lot. The fire effect would add less than one En* hit so I would say this sword is not worth it....

I have a multipart question, mostly pre-Refresh related. Now, you discuss using wands for stat boosts and swords for melee, but I'm going to lose TP when switching weapons, or even resting between fights. How often are RDMs expected to participate in SCs? Should my priority be switching to wand for maximum damage with spells then switching back to sword for melee, and rest between battles? Or should I be more concerned with SCs?

It seems to me that, pre-Refresh, even with juices, if I'm not resting between fights I'm not going to be working at the best of my abilities, and that I should forego SCs if necessary. I would think MBing at the end of the SC would be where I could be most beneficial to a SC, unless we already had a BLM to take care of that.

yes you do lose tp for switching weapons(even equipping a bow)

gaining tp should not be your main concern. helping the party with your magic is #1 priority which is then divided into sub-priorities.

but yeah, reds aren't usually main skillchain'ers past like valkurm dunes. and yes you should ALWAYS magic burst, black mage or no(even if your elemental skill is poopy)

Okay, hypothetical question. Supposing a RDM by some miracle or severe lack of a social life DID manage to get ahold of Excalibur, do you think that RDMs party would still bitch if they meleed?

It depends.

You have to consider that Excalibur is level 75, and just what sort of activities are going on then. If an xp or merit point party, I assume the party wouldn't mind. Especially given that at 75, all the good xp is VTs or low ITs. And its probably fine against the weaker NMs/HNMs that don't have nasty AOEs.

However, for stuff like Dynamis, stronger HNMs, etc, the RDM would be expected to not melee, even with Excalibur.

Here's a new weapon for RDM's brought to us by the last update.

Justice Sword rare/ex
DMG:34 Delay:236 STR+7
Virtue stone equipped:
Occasionally attacks twice
Lv.73 RDM/THF/PLD

a few addition and comments here:

Theres actually 2 more sword that is quite appealing, especially for those that cant afford an Enhancing Sword and no friends to help with a Joyeuse.


Mighty Talwar - This sword is very good and affordable, and when it comes to Winds day it become one of the most powerful sword you'll get.

Martial Anelace - this baby cost a little steep, but if you can afford it, it worth every single penny. Its especially good for soloing EP or even DC, since it gives you TP bonus (so when you TP is 100% you can use it like it has 200%) which makes this sword a true killer.


Minor Topic on Enhancing Sword and Joyeuse:

Enhancing Sword is more a "Trophy" sword, yes it has the highest damage per hit with its latent effect, but Joyeuse has better damage over time due to double hit and more frequent WS.
However when you fighting bones which rapier is weak to, Enhancing Sword will be the winner there.

I went wiuth the flame sword over the longsword or longsword +1 because the flame sword's damage rating is equal to that of an NQ longsword, with a 22 lower delay rating. In addition, at lesat on Phoenix, the Flame Sword costs about half as much as a logsword +1. If you're not willing to sink 100k into a weapon you use for lv.18-30 (I couldn't afford that much at the time), the Flame Sword is a fine choice. In addition, if like me you leveled Red Mage as your first job because of its "Jack of all Trades" status, you'll also find about twice as many jobs can use the Flame Sword as the Longsword.

Ultimately, the Longsword +1 is better for Red Mages, but the Flame Sword has its merits as well.



Oh, and good guide, by the way.

http://www.theorderls.com/oct2.php

It's about halfway down the page. This was in OTBG News section from October of '05.